At the
time of its construction in 1834, the building
that
would
become the Greenbrier County Public Library
was erected to serve
as a law
library for the use of judges and clerks of
the Supreme Court of
Virginia,
which met in Lewisburg.It
was built by
James Frazier, then owner of the Star Tavern,
a building adjacent to
the new
library which would one day become known as
the North House.

According
to the book Lewisburg
Landmarks, by Ruth Woods Dayton, after
the state of West
Virginia was formed
in 1863, the Virginia
law library was relocated to Richmond
and the building itself was used for other
purposes, including as a
Masonic
Lodge.

During
the
Civil War, the building was used as a
military
hospital, and a section of the original wall
plaster with the penciled
names
and regiments scrawled there by soldier
patients is preserved to this
day.

In
1935, the building was acquired by the
town of Lewisburg
and was restored
and modernized.In
1941 the building was
dedicated as Greenbrier County Library. The
Greenbrier
Historical Society at one time occupied the
upstairs portion
of the
library, using the space as a museum.It
served that role for the next 66 years.

In the
late 1970s, the library
acquired a new neighbor in
the form of an annex building, which had at
one time served as a
slaves'
quarters located elsewhere in Lewisburg.The
small
building was renovated and served as a
meeting room and
activities room for the library.

In
the mid 1990s, the board of
directors of the Greenbrier
County Library decided that the library was
quickly outgrowing its home.Plans were discussed for either
relocating
the library to a larger existing facility or
to raise funds to build a
new facility.The
later decision was made.After much work and much fundraising
on the
part of the library's Capital Campaign
Committee, ground was broken on
what
would become the new home for the Greenbrier
County Library in 2005.

On July
20, 2007, the new facility opened
its doors to the
public, located across the street and just
up the hill from the
original
library facility.